Archive for March, 2010
How old do you have to be in California to smoke hookah at a hookah bar. Me and my friends wanna go! please help!
Because I’m 15 and I’ve heard that the legal age is either 14 or 16. I’m SURE you can do it by 16, but can I do it at 15? I would like an educated answer.
What is the legal age for smoking Hookah at a bar in California?
Good morning again, Hookah Whisperers!
Just wanted to update you on the survey I posted about a month ago. I am keeping it open as long as people keep responding, so feel free to vote for your favs. I will post an update every once in a while. so far, here is how it stands:
#1 Starbuzz 36%
T#2 Social Smoke, Al Fakher 18% each
T#3 Fantasia, Nakhla, and Tangiers 9% each
So far no votes for Hookah Freak. Ouch!
Until next time, remember: Life is too short to smoke cheap shisha!
related post
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates More than a dozen of us filed into the dark elevator, ready to be whisked up 1,483 feet to the observation deck of the newly minted tallest building in the world.
The smooth 60-second ride delivered us to the Burj Khalifas 124th floor. People of all ages were making their way around the viewing platforms floor-to-ceiling windows, soaking up the 360-degree views of Dubai at night.
This trip up the tower was the hottest ticket in town until the very next day. on Feb. 6, one of the Burjs elevators broke down, trapping 15 people inside for nearly an hour, stranding others on the observation deck and sparking the sudden closure of the viewing platform.
Nearly a month later, the Burj Khalifas observation deck remains closed, and building officials are tight-lipped about when that will change. The first of some 12,000 residential tenants and office workers were supposed to move in last month, but havent. The towers super swanky Armani Hotel Dubai the first hotel designed by Giorgio Armani planned on welcoming its first guests March 18. That date has been pushed back to April 22.
The delays are an embarrassing episode for the $1.5 billion skyscraper, whose dramatic Jan. 4 debut included a lavish show of lasers and fireworks. and it comes at a difficult time for Dubai, as the emirate struggles to dig its way out of debt and battles a slump in tourism.
The Burj Khalifa was supposed to help turn things around for Dubai, both symbolically and practically. This once-sleepy fishing village had landed not just the tallest building in the world, but the tallest building by far. Stack the John Hancock Center on top of the most recent record holder, Taiwans Taipei 101, and you basically have the 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa.
Even though the observation deck was the only part of the half-mile-high building that had opened, tourists already were coming in droves and they were bringing their wallets. Local newspapers reported a 30 percent boost in retail sales at area businesses since the skyscrapers opening.
We used to get requests for rooms with seaside views; now people want rooms on the other side of the hotel on the Burj Khalifa side, said Neil Rumbaoa, communications director for Dubais Shangri-La Hotel.
During my visit to the Burj on a Friday night, a long line of locals and international visitors snaked from the ticket counter and spilled into a food court full of familiar storefronts like Caribou Coffee and mrs. Fields Cookies.
Admission to the towers observation deck a little more than 100 feet above the skyscrapers midsection costs $27 if you buy your ticket in advance. thats almost twice as much as adult admission to Chicagos Willis Tower Skydeck and the Hancock Observatory.
The Burjs prices soar even higher for impatient folks with deep pockets wanting to jump to the front of the line. a ticket allowing immediate entry will set you back a cool 400 dirhams, or about $109.
The visitor experience entails more than just an elevator ride up to the worlds second highest observation deck. (Shanghai World Financial Center held on to the no. 1 slot with a public viewing deck 72 feet higher than Burj Khalifa’s. But the Burjs includes an outdoor terrace with guardrails for al fresco sightseeing.)
Visitors wend their way through 10 sections, including a ride on a moving walkway that gives a visual journey of Dubais path from dusty desert outpost to modern metropolis.
Another section explains the architecture, engineering and logistics that went into the steel-and-glass behemoth. This is where youll find the faces of several Chicagoans, most notably that of architect Adrian Smith. He began designing the building when he was still with Chicagos Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architects and engineers of the tower.
Its fitting that our city the one that gave birth to skyscrapers has lots of connections to whats now the tallest of the bunch. Even the Burjs general manager, Tom Dempsey, was a former GM at Willis Tower.
Visitors get to play with some fun interactive displays, like one that lets you plop the Burj Khalifa into various cities skylines, including Chicagos. no matter where you place it, the elegant, super-tall structure stands out like Heidi Klum in a preschool class.
From the 124th-floor observation deck, you get a birds eye view of Dubais man-made islands shaped to look like a palm tree and the world. Smart telescopes show you what an area way down below looks like during day or night, and touch screens give you more information about what youre looking at.
Children and adults were pressed up to the windows as men with buckets and squeegees trailed in their wake, trying in vain to keep the windows clean. I was struck by how noisy it was on the observation deck, probably because it was the antithesis of a recent visit to the Hancock Observatory, where people quietly walked around with headsets listening to an audio tour by David Schwimmer.
One thing all major observation decks have in common is a gift shop, and the Burj Khalifas was full of T-shirts, mugs and other trinkets. Problem is, most of the items sported the towers old name, Burj Dubai. The last-minute name change was a giant thank you to Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the ruler of oil-rich Abu Dhabi whos been quick to open his checkbook during his neighbors debt crisis.
Funnily enough, the Burjs observation deck didnt provide me with my most memorable view of Dubai. That came from the Shangri-Las rooftop lounge, a hip, South Beach-looking spot with palm trees bathed in pink lights, pretty people puffing on hookah pipes and a stellar view of the Burj Khalifa.
In my opinion, the best sights this glistening skyscraper offers are of it, not in it. and for the time being, thats the only option.
Information for this article was gathered on a research trip sponsored by Etihad Airways and Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts.
u guys might know where i could find this hookah i saw? i wanna get it for my older sister for christmas.
http://hookahgenie.blogspot.com/2007/12/hot-pink-modern-hookah.html
Smoke drifts upward and disperses against the black pressed-tile ceiling at Whiskey, a dimly lit downtown Durham bar where the leather furniture is tufted and the cherries are soaked in bourbon. A man reading a book holds his cigarette while saddled atop a stool. Glass ashtrays are spaced every few feet along the bar rail.
Three weeks after the statewide ban against smoking in restaurants and bars went into effect, Whiskey appears no different than it did on opening day six months ago.
It is one of several businesses across the Triangle learning how the smoking ban, signed into law last May, affects them. Health professionals, lawmakers and many citizens laud the statewide snuff-out, which could help curb serious heart and lung disease and smoking-related cancer. but their enthusiasm is hampered by financial and procedural hurdles: the ban is based on citizen complaints. it does not cover all bars and restaurants, and enforcement is inconsistent and varies among counties.
The $281,000 budget—apportioned among all the county health departments in the state—can’t pay for enough staff to enforce the law. the Legislature appropriated no money for enforcement.
“In tight budget times, that would have been challenging,” Sally Malek, manager of the N.C. Division of Public Health’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch, says.
Read more and
download documents
What’s the law?
• who does it apply to?
• Who’s exempt?
• how is it enforced?
• who funds it?
Who’s receiving complaints?
• by county
• by city
• by business
The effectiveness of the ban largely hinges on the public to observe and report alleged violations via a phone hotline (1-800-662-7030) or an online form (www.smokefree.nc.gov) at the State Division of Public Health’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch. County health departments also can file and investigate complaints.
Statewide, there were 520 complaints—most of them anonymous—from Jan. 2, when the ban went into effect, through Jan. 26. A caller can make multiple complaints in the same report.
Four complaints involved Whiskey. (A reported complaint is not a violation until it is validated by the local health department.)
“Cigars and cigarettes were smoked by many without management intervention,” reads an anonymous complaint filed Jan. 11. another filed on Jan. 16 noted, “The volume and density of smoke in the establishment made it impossible for the owners not to have been aware of the violation.”
Each week, the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch’s 15-member staff culls and distributes the complaints to local health directors, who then send them to a designated department within county government. Wake, Durham and Orange send them to environmental health, which is already charged with restaurant inspections. Those officials then send a form letter—written by state officials—accompanied by a synopsis of the specific complaint.
The letter to Whiskey reads, “These allegations, if true, would constitute violations of the new NC Smoke-free Restaurants and Bars Law. this is not a notice of violation. instead we are taking this opportunity to provide you with information to help you ensure that your establishment is in compliance with the new law.”
The correspondence goes on to caution that after two future warnings, the bar can receive a $200 fine per violation.
“The intent was the change behavior, not punish behavior,” says Rep. Deborah Ross, D-Wake, who co-sponsored the legislation, House Bill 2.
State and local officials are using this method, in which citizens patrol and the health department investigates, because they believe the public widely supports the ban. more important, health departments don’t have the resources to snoop for smokers and write fines each day.
“The public is the one that’s really doing the enforcement here in a lot of ways,” says Sue Lynn Ledford, Wake County community health director. some bar owners are reporting competitors, Ledford says.
“We were told we’re not the smoking police,” Durham County Health Director Gayle Harris says.” we are there to educate and expect that people will comply.”
At Hookah Bliss in Chapel Hill, a steady stream of regulars enjoy the bar’s slow pace, its experienced staff and homey atmosphere. the small lounge, which holds just 22 people, sells 61 flavors of shisha—flavored tobacco, glycerin and molasses—along with microbrews, meads and organic hard cider.
Owner Adam Bliss, has become the most visible and outspoken critic of the ban, as he continues to allow them to smoke the communal water-cooled pipes. He posted the required nonsmoking sign, which cites the law and gives the hotline and Web site info, but added his own editorial commentary:
“No cigarettes, cigars or pipes,” he wrote on the sign displayed in his front window. “Hookahs are still OK.”
Legislators and the Orange County Health Department disagree, despite Bliss’ yearlong opposition to the law. Bliss said he met with bill sponsors last year as the law was being debated, seeking an exemption for hookah bars that want to serve alcohol. He lobbied his representatives, arguing that his business—like cigar bars, which aren’t subject to the law—is a legitimate tobacco establishment. and, Bliss contended, since hookahs are vaporizers and don’t contain a lit tobacco product, they don’t create secondhand smoke.
When those efforts failed, he decided to ignore the ban. He continues to order and sell shisha and he’s rallied hookah bar owners across the state to fund a legal defense, calling the ban unfair and uneven.
He encouraged the Orange County Health Department to cite him with a violation, even inviting officials to do so through the press.
Bliss succeeded. On Jan. 8, the state received an anonymous complaint that read, “This establishment is flagrantly violating the law and the owner seemed a bit proud of it when we inquired about it. He said he was just waiting for a complaint and his exact words were, ‘I’ve never had such a hard time getting in trouble before.’”
Orange County followed up with an educational letter and a visit. Bliss intends to sue the county.
“Now we’ve got our ammunition,” Bliss says, the letter in hand. “Now we’re going for it.”
Orange County Health Director Rosemary Summers says if the department continues to receive complaints, it will issue warnings and fines to Hookah Bliss until it complies. According to the law, violating the ban isn’t a criminal offense, though Summers says habitual violators could be subject to an injunction.
“They are dealt with no differently than a restaurant or a bar,” says Tom Konsler, Orange County’s environmental health director. “It just happens to be a bar owned by someone who’s decided not to comply with the law.”
Bliss isn’t budging, either. “We’re just going to keep kicking and screaming and try to raise enough money to stay open,” he says.
In Raleigh, Kathy Marcom holds a beer and cigarette in either hand as she stands on a wooden ramp outside her bar’s back door.
“We are complying, but I’m not happy,” she says.
She owns Marcom’s Tavern, a members-only watering hole with paint-splattered acrylic tables, tan tile flooring and glass doors covered by maroon curtains. There’s a jukebox, karaoke, darts, billiard tables and memorabilia from N.C. State, Duke, UNC and Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Most folks are regulars who followed Marcom, a long-time Raleigh bartender, to her new place two years ago. She says a majority of the 427 members are smokers. So are seven of the bar’s nine employees. They kept smoking inside for two weeks after the ban, but stopped after the state received 10 reports and Wake County Public Health Educator Ronda Sanders visited the bar twice and filed a violation.
Marcom says she was confused by educational materials on the state’s Web site, adding that she thought she wasn’t subject to the law because she didn’t have a health inspection. She’s contacting a lawyer about the mix-up and considering going nonprofit to earn an exemption.
“We don’t serve food. we don’t have glasses,” she says. “I’m a private club, but I don’t meet the state’s definition of a private club.”
She doesn’t have the space to build a patio, so for now patrons go out back and drop their cigarette butts in a tin can or outside the front door in the parking lot of a strip mall where they can’t take their drinks.
“You come to a bar to smoke and drink,” she says. “People are missing the music. They aren’t drinking as much. People who sit at bars, they are chain-smokers. the pace has slowed down.”
She’s also had to quit selling cigarettes, which generated $500 in revenue a month.
Health departments, not police or Alcohol Law Enforcement, are in charge of explaining the law’s nuances to business owners like Marcom and dealing with recalcitrant owners such as Bliss.
Legislators and bill proponents see smoking as a public health issue rather than a crime. and there is little money for enforcement. Lawmakers didn’t appropriate any funds as part of the law because, as Rep. Ross of Wake County says, “Every time you tell someone that they have to do something, you shouldn’t have to give them money to do it.”
“The assumption is that people are going to comply,” she says. “It’s not like you are going to have a bazillion violations out there. therefore, it wouldn’t cost money for the few violations that there would be.”
The State Division of Public Health did receive an $81,000 grant from the Americans for Nonsmokers Rights Foundation, a California-based national lobbying group, and also pulled $200,000 from the state’s Health and Wellness Trust Fund, money set aside from a settlement agreement with tobacco companies. however, the grants stipulate those funds must be used only for education and not enforcement.
“There really isn’t any funding for enforcement activities that is coming from the state to the locals, but they have been very committed to the implementation of this law,” Malek says. “We’re hoping that education alone will bring 80 to 90 percent of businesses into compliance, and there won’t be as much needed for enforcement.”
The money was apportioned across the 85 health departments in the state (a few counties share departments) based on the number of restaurants and bars in their jurisdiction. Each group got a pot of money, minus the cost of printing drink coasters advertising the ban. the state used a portion of the grants to build its smokefree.nc.gov site, hold webinars on implementation strategy and send educational packets to the 24,000 restaurants and bars in its database.
Wake received $18,718 after paying its $1,512.50 coaster bill. Durham got $6,517 and $1,512 of coasters, while Orange has $2,763.60 to use and spent $450 on the cardboard drink mats.
County health directors say most of the money they garnered will pay for advertising in local newspapers.
Durham is using some of it to hire a college intern who will travel across the county with information packets for convenience stores and other businesses the state’s database may have missed. the intern won’t generate complaints, however, and will be paid between $10 and $15 an hour for the semester-long project, Harris said.
Wake has requested more money to hire a temporary person. “There’s no one that’s full time (on the ban),” Ledford says. “It’s a portion of multiple folks’ responsibilities. the biggest challenge for us is just geographically; we are a large county.
Even before last summer’s legislation, there has been a statewide and a national trend toward voluntarily eliminating smoking in restaurants. Places like Tyler’s Taproom in Durham and Breadman’s in Chapel Hill went smoke-free ahead of the ban, in response to customer comments. Health department and elected officials say public support makes it easier to implement the law.
“Tons of people have told me how much more pleasant it is to go to bars and restaurants,” Rep. Ross says.
They point to research linking secondhand smoke to cancer and heart disease. They tell anecdotes about visiting once dank and smoke-filled eateries that had a waiting list for nonsmoking and open seats in the smoking section. These places, they say, are now pleasant and full of customers.
Those are the scenes lawmakers envisioned when they passed the ban last summer as lung cancer survivor and House Majority Leader Hugh Holliman (D-Davidson), succeeded in his four-year push for the law.
Thomas Carr, national policy manager for the American Lung Association, says North Carolina is taking “a monumental step forward” in becoming the 29th state to abolish smoking in restaurants and the 24th to do so in bars.
“It’s an easy solution to a known health hazard, secondhand smoke,” Carr says. “It just eliminates it completely. it works.”
It doesn’t work everywhere, though.
A New York Times story published in December found that the seven-year-old citywide smoking ban is ignored in exclusive nightclubs and neighborhood bars. the story pointed to a USA Today report that identified businesses in Chicago, Honolulu, Ohio and Virginia that refuse to adhere to anti-smoking laws.
“Early on, it’s best if you take a strong approach to enforcement and really make sure the law is being followed,” Carr says. “Public support increases after these laws take effect, once people see the results.”
Carr said states generally achieve between 85 percent and 95 percent compliance with smoking bans.
So far, area health officials say the complaint-driven process is working, though there are varying benchmarks for success. in Wake, Ledford says the fact that her county received 50 complaints—9.6 percent of the state total—indicates that news of the ban has reached residents and that they are willing to report violations. in Durham and Orange, health department leaders say their comparativelly low number of complaints, eight and 19, respectively, show that restaurants are complying.
“I don’t think anyone now can tell you what kind of compliance rate there is out there,” says Rep. Grier Martin (D-Wake), another bill co-sponsor.
Summers said the numbers will fluctuate during the educational phase of the law.
“We’re in that sort of educational curve of ‘Yes that does apply to bars and it applies to you,’” she says. “We’ll see it go up and down for several months.”
Enforcement also varies by county. Malek says her office worked with the North Carolina Association of Local Health Directors and the UNC School of Government to try to standardize enforcement, but she admits that there is some leeway.
The state provides recommendations about how many educational letters to send before the warning process and fines are enforced, but the health department isn’t bound to them.
“The law specifies that you have to have two confirmed violations before you can fine someone, but beyond that is it at discretion of health director the way the law is written whether the fine is enforced or how many visits are allowed before you fine someone,” Summers says.
In Durham, owners get two educational letters, two warnings and then a fine. in Wake, it’s one educational letter before the two warnings and fine.
“It’s really a pretty simple law, and compliance really rests on the owner and the manager of the business,” Malek says. “All the owner or manager of the restaurant or bar has to do is post the required signs at a visible location, remove all ashtrays and if people light up in the enclosed spaces, ask them to put it out or take it outside.”
But as Whiskey, Hookah Bliss and Marcom’s Tavern show, exemptions in the law are confusing. Cigar bars and private, nonprofit clubs get a pass. Tobacco shops that don’t serve alcohol are OK. So are film production sets in which actors smoke as part of the performance. that led Juggling Gypsy, a Wilmington hookah bar, to buy a webcam and stream video of patrons puffing at www.thesmokingshow.com.
State officials say they’re confident that bars and restaurants will comply once they understand the exemptions.
“What we’ve learned from other states is there tends to be a flurry of activity for the first two to six months and everything settles down and it’s accepted,” Malek says.
Whiskey owners are trying to officially become a cigar bar, which would exempt them from the ban. They expect to hear back from the state by the end of February.
To get the exemption, Whiskey must prove that 60 percent or more of its quarterly gross revenue comes from alcohol and 25 percent or more comes from cigars. They also must have a humidor on site and only allow people 21 and older to enter the bar.
A sign on the front door says the bar is open to members-only ages 23 and up.
Whiskey Owner Rhys Botica says he is reluctant to discuss the ban because it is controversial. however, he says he’ll convert his business to nonsmoking if he doesn’t earn an exemption.
That looks likely, though. “We’ve already been to Whiskey,” says Marc Meyer, Durham County Food and Lodging supervisor. “They have a humidor. They sell cigars. They’re in compliance. They just need to fill out this paperwork.”
As the evening wears on at the Whiskey, a group of patrons arrives and a man lights a thick, stout cigar, puffing rapidly until the tip turns orange.
Without money or manpower, how will counties enforce the smoking ban?
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Hookah Maintainance Tips:The following steps are essential to maintaining a good smoking hookah smoking:
* Don’t leave water in the hookah base when you are done smoking.
* Wash your hookah after every use.
* Once a month disassemble the hookah and clean every part.
* Store yours
* Wash the hookah hose after every use.
* Don’t leave water in the tobacco is a cool dry place.
[New Vocal Trance Mix] Hookah Mini Sessions Episode 8: Roger Shah Edition
A tribute to one of the best trance producers in the industry today: Roger Shah! Tracklist: 1. Roger Shah & Tenishia feat. Lorilee – I’m Not God (Roger Shah Remix) 2. Judge Jules & Roger Shah feat. Amanda Angelic – Hold On (Original Mix) 3. DJ Shah feat. Adrina Thorpe – back to you (Original Mix) Check out my other hookah mini sessions on my youtube channel!
Tags: “Top, 10, 20, 2009, 2010, 8:, Above, Adrina, amanda, angelic, armin, ASOT, ATB, Back, Beyond, buuren, dance, DJ, edition, episode, god, hold, hookah, im, JANUARY, judge, jules, Lorilee, Megamix, mini, Minimix, mix, music, New, not, on, Remix, roger, Roger Shah, sesh, Session”, Sessions, shisha, Songs, tatw, Tenishia, Thorpe, To, trance, van, vocal, You
Posted in Roger Shah | 1 Comment »
[New Vocal Trance Mix] Hookah Mini Sessions Episode 8: Roger Shah …
Today I received a new shipment of Starbuzz flavors. The first one I’m trying is the Starbuzz Wild Mint. I packed the bowl, put some ice in the vase and cut one lime to 4pieces and put it in the water, put couple leaves of fresh mint, and amsmoking it out of a Trimetal Khalil Mamoon (beautiful hookah).
The flavor is a smooth mint flavor, refreshing and thick. The smokeis rich and great. I love mint so this is definitely one my favoriteflavors.
Flavor: It has a very smooth mint flavor and smell.
Smoke: Just like most other Starbuzz flavors it is rich and thick.
Smoothness: It’s a mint flavor. It can’t get much smoother than this.
Overall: Great tobacco on my every day hookah list
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Hookah lounges are becoming increasingly popular in Mount Pleasant.
Two recently opened businesses are offering students options so they can choose the atmosphere that fits for them.
The Smokers Club, 100 S. Mission St., is adding two rooms to its establishment that will be used as hookah lounges and should be open by the end of the month. the S.I.X. Lounge, 1901 S. Mission St., opened last fall.
Smokers Club owner Dave Sprunger said he thinks hookah is becoming more popular because it is the cleanest way to smoke. He said as people become more aware of the dangers of smoking tobacco products, they are turning to hookah as a safer option.
“You still get the nicotine, which is why people smoke,” he said. “But it uses steam and water vapor, so there’s no tar.”
Some college students, he said, might see it as a way to get around smoking bans in apartments.
Sprunger knows a lot of students who smoke hookah because it does not leave stains and a strong smell like tobacco does, and users can choose from a variety of flavors.
The Hookah Lounge, inside the Malt Shop, 1088 S. University St., is Mount Pleasant’s oldest hookah hangout.
Owner Rosie Haddad said she thinks hookah has always been popular among students, but other business owners are just now starting to realize the potential of the lounges in a college town.
“We’ve been here for five years, and business has been about the same for the last four years,” she said.
Haddad is not concerned with the addition of competing lounges, and said “there’s enough business for everyone.”
The addition of the other lounges, she said, just gives students a chance to pick which atmosphere is a better fit.
A ‘nice social activity’
Travis Smith, a St. Johns junior, and Jacquelyn Simon, a St. Johns sophomore, said they like smoking hookah because it is a nice, relaxing way to spend time with friends.
“I like the atmosphere,” Simon said. “It’s a nice social activity.”
Smith and Simon said they go to the Hookah Lounge about once a week.
Haddad said her business is not dependent on hookah sales, since hookah is only a portion. the Malt Shop, she said, has been in business for 40 years selling food, coffee and smoothies.
Sprunger said the Smokers Club also is not dependent on the hookah, since it also offers all kinds of tobacco products. However, he wants to make hookah a bigger part.
He said he is in the process of acquiring new lines of hookah from Las Vegas so he can offer the latest trends along with traditional flavors.
Hookah sales have been up since the addition began, he said, and he expects them to go up even more once it is finished.
E-mail the author: 
Jaimie Cremeans
